Last week I was on a cruise (Carnival's MS Elation, Galveston to Mexico and Belize, and return). All in all, it was a very good trip. Along the way there were two blackjack tournaments. Each had a $500, winner take all prize and costs $20 per entry. The general format was to play seven hands of blackjack and the seven highest qualifiers at the end of the four hour play period went on to a final, seven hand game. The highest chip leader is declared the winner of the $500!

In the first tournament I lost all $1000 (in NCV's) in the very first hand. I bet $500, doubled down on a 9 to the dealer's 6, got a 3 lost to the dealer's drww to 21!

So, I played again. That too was a loss, but I at least played two hands (losing both!).

Having lost $40 I then gave up. Several days later I decided to play in the second tournament. I was at the very first round, in the anchor chair and immediately was dealt 3 blackjacks IN A ROW!!!

I then lost a hand, tapered back my bet for two hands and won the last and final hand with a blackjack. I went onto the leader board with $8200 and remained at the top to finish as the top qualifier!

The top qualifier was awarded a wrist watch (an Ocean Player's Club logoed watch) which is now in my collection. I was then allowed to choose what seat I wanted and picked the anchor position. The next runner ups then picked their seating and we started the games.

The rules for the final were slightly different in that the anchor seat (7th seat) had to bet first, followed by seat 1 and then 2 and so on. Once a bet was declared you could not change it. I bet $400, had a double-down hand and won. Another player bet $500 and had a blackjack. I had chips, but he was the leader. For hand two, player 6 bet first, then me (7), then 1 and so on. I bet $800 and won! The other chip leader pushed.

I then bet another $800 and LOST! The chip leader had a large bet and the opportunity to go down for double (against a dealer 5) and pushed all his money in. He lost and was out! This made me the chip leader, but not by much. At this point I decided to not lose as much as the others. I bet $200, they'd bet $400 and $500 and lost and one more went out. I lost my $200 bets until I have about $500 left and two other players had $600 each, and two others had $300.

It was the very last round and I was the last to bet. The $300 player went all in, the first $600 player also went all in, as did the other $600 player and the other $300 player. It was then my turn and I bet $400, leaving me, as the only player with any un-bet chips. This shocked the other players, especially when I started rooting for the dealer to get a blackjack!

Howeve, he gave himself a 3 as an up card. I had a total of 9, but did not double down (with less), keeping my $100 chip in reserve. One player went bust and the others ended up with less than 19. I drew a face card (19) and the dealer turned up a 7 for a total of 10 (and I just took his cae card!). I immediately rooted for a ace or face card and was pleased to see a King show up!!!!

I was declared the winner, with just one chip!!! What an exciting evening!

BTW-Carnival now uses NCV Tournament chips, instead of their past generic H&;ampC, hot-stamped chips. In the blackjack tournament we used $100's, $500's and $1000's. I saw $5's and $2.50's in a display case, and assume that they also have $25's.

All have the identical logos (on both sides, and only the colors and denominations are different. Scanned below is the $100 (the only NCV I managed to get). Colors are:

Blue - $2.50
Red - $5.00
UNK - $25.00
Orange - $100
(I forgot) - $500
White - $1000

The ship/spade logo is that of the Ocean Players Club.

Thanks for reading,

Jim Follis